A proud nation ponders how to halt its slow decline
Europe is talking about “the French question”: can the Socialist government of President François Hollande pull France out of its slow decline and prevent it from slipping permanently into Europe’s second tier?

French PM and unions meet on retirement reform
The French Prime Minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, is meeting with eight unions and three employers’ groups to discuss proposed pension reforms. The reform is part of a series of measures aimed at reducing France’s large public deficit.

World's oldest balloon race sets off from eastern France
Eighteen hot-air balloons defied difficult weather to set off from the eastern French city of Nancy on the world's oldest ballon race on Sunday morning. The Gordon Bennett Cup was started ion 1906 by the founder of the International Herald Tribune newspaper and bears his name.

But seemingly overnight Goussainville-Vieux Pays was left virtually deserted – a mixture of tragedy and noise pollution compelling the village’s rustic residents to abandon their homes, leaving them overgrown and rotting.

The problems can be traced back to the mid-1960s when plans were drawn up for a new airport to be built in the suburbs north of Paris.

The French government rushed to assure tax-weary companies and consumers on Friday that a new form of green levy meant to encourage industries and households to cut energy consumption would not amount to new tax increases.

A GRANDFATHER has been shot dead in front of his wife and granddaughter as he tried to stop two armed robbers.

Jacques Blondel, a 61-year-old retired Air France employee, was shot in Marignane, a suburb of Marseille, as he rammed the scooter the two robbers were using to escape the tobacconist shop they had held up.

As Jacques Blondel challenged the two men he was shot twice. His wife and 15-month-old granddaughter witnessed the shooting.

The two robbers fled and although one was later caught, the other is still on the run.

Interior minister, Manuel Valls, described Jacques Blondel as 'courageous' and went on to say that people's conscience should be heightened against violent acts.

Marseille is currently experiencing a crime wave of shootings, often between rival gangs over drugs and territories, so much so that extra police have been posted to the city.

French hit film Amélie headed for Broadway
The 2001 French hit film Amélie is to be made into a Broadway musical. After leaks in the trade press, US composer Dan Messe says he will make a musical from the movie that catapulted actress Audrey Tautou to stardom.

PROPERTY sale prices are set to be made available via the internet after the tax authorities announced the planned opening of its database.

PATRIM usagers will offer up sale prices and other property details, however it is designed to help in the settling of inheritance issues, deciding on the value of properties for taxes sur la fortune purposes and other financial arrangements.

So the service will require individuals to submit their tax code details before proceeding and there will be a limit on the number of queries made in a time period.

The French Alps Property Search website says the property price database could enable people to undertake their own research, cutting the estate agent out of the equation.

The question is whether people will use the database only for the cases described (inheritance and taxes sur la fortune) or whether they will use the database when selling or buying a property.

People could access the database up to 50 times every three months. However, some people may have worries about accessing the database, as it will involve the use of the identification code for income tax declarations, despite the tax authorities not being able to use the information.

There is currently no website available to browse but the tax authorities say it should be available by the end of the year.

IN a classic case of government 'decision making' what lies ahead for the auto-entrepreneur scheme now won't be decided until towards the end of the year.

Small business minister, Sylvia Pinel, announced that a study will be undertaken by fellow Socialist MP, Laurent Grandguillaume, in the next few weeks.

The study will look at ways to simplify and harmonise the auto-entrepreneur scheme, despite it already proving simple enough for close on 900,000 people to be registered on it.

In the past few months there has been much anger amongst groups representing auto-entrepreneurs that a number of limits and restrictions would be brought in.

The most worrying proposal for many was the idea of introducing a limit on the turnover of a business of €19,000, which if achieved in two consecutive years would see them transferred to the classic tax regimes.

So we are left with no real decision taken and questions hanging over the auto-entrepreneur status, all whilst the French economy struggles along.

Today the latest Markit business sentiment figures showed lower output was recorded in both the services and manufacturing sectors during August, while employment in the private sector continued to slide.

Neo-Gothic and solidly 19th century, the church of Sainte-Gemmes-d'Andigne in western France stands as a testament to a long-gone village way of life.

The limestone church with its four-bay nave and high stained glass windows towers above the village, now home to just a fraction of the people it was built to serve in 1865 when an earlier one on the same site was deemed too small.

Nearly a century-and-a-half on and the fall in church attendances combined with migration to cities and the soaring cost of maintenance has put the future of such churches in jeopardy, leading some to think the once unthinkable.